Shall we dig into the Old Fashioned?
This is the drink that sits at the very foundation of the cocktail world — a simple mix of spirit, sugar, bitters, and water that has somehow managed to spark more debate, regional variation, and quiet passion than almost any other glass of Whiskey. Call it the quintessential Whiskey cocktail if you like. Just know that statement gets contested the moment you cross state lines (or the cheddar curtain). What follows is the story of how a straightforward “old-fashioned” Whiskey cocktail became a living, evolving classic.
Old Fashioned Origins: A Tale of Two Theories
The exact origins of the Old Fashioned are hotly debated, and the drink has more than its share of claimants.
The 1862 Recipe (Most Widely Accepted). This is the version most historians and cocktail experts point to. In 1862, bartender and author Jerry Thomas published a recipe for an “Old Fashioned” in How to Mix Drinks. Thomas’s version called for two ounces of Whiskey (typically Rye), one sugar cube, two dashes of Angostura bitters, water or soda water, and an orange peel for garnish. Importantly, Thomas’s recipe involved no muddling — he simply dissolved the sugar cube in water, added the Whiskey, and stirred in the bitters. This is the method considered the original, and it held for decades. This is my preferred method.
Others place the drink’s birth much earlier. Some credit a Louisville bartender named James E. Holly with a nearly identical drink as far back as 1806. Holly’s version skipped the orange peel and used still water rather than soda, since carbonated water was barely more than a novelty in America at the time — Johann Jacob Schweppes had patented his carbonation process only two decades earlier, and it would be years before soda water reached American taverns in any real way. Holly’s recipe, like Thomas’s, involved no muddling, which makes it a plausible ancestor rather than a rival claim.
The muddling of fruit didn’t enter the picture until Prohibition, when bartenders leaned on it to mask the rough edges of bootlegged spirits. The habit stuck, and it grew through Post-Prohibition America into the 1970s.
The Name Itself. “Old Fashioned” likely nods to a return: a drink of the old style, ordered by someone who wanted their Whiskey the way it used to be served — sugar and bitters, nothing more elaborate layered on top. It’s a callback dressed up as a cocktail.
For a long stretch of the twentieth century, the Old Fashioned faded from view as more elaborate cocktails took over the bar. Its comeback has a clear author: bartender Dick Bradsell, who revived the drink at London’s Savoy Hotel in the 1980s. Bradsell’s method muddled the sugar cube with bitters and water into a syrup before adding Whiskey and ice — a richer, more concentrated drink, and the version most people now picture when they hear the name.
The Wisconsin Old Fashioned
The world settled on Whiskey as the Old Fashioned’s backbone. Cross ninety miles north of Chicago — through the cheddar curtain — and that consensus falls apart. Order an Old Fashioned in Milwaukee, Madison, or Oconomowoc, and Brandy lands in your glass.
The switch happened gradually. Many trace it to the Korbel brothers, who introduced their California Brandy to Midwestern fairgoers at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Wisconsin’s large German immigrant population favored sweeter spirits over Whiskey, and Korbel’s Brandy fit the palate. Decades later, Whiskey shortages during World War II sent distributors scrambling for substitutes, and Wisconsin turned to Christian Brothers, Korbel, and other Brandies out of California. The pipeline they opened never closed. Today, forty-nine states know Korbel for sparkling wine. Wisconsin knows it for Brandy.
The Wisconsin Brandy Old Fashioned keeps the bones of the classic but goes heavier on fruit — often several orange slices and maraschino cherries muddled in with the sugar and bitters. “Muddled” undersells it; “pulverized” is closer to what I’ve watched Wisconsin bartenders do to that fruit. The aggressive treatment releases bitterness from the orange peel and pith, elements that should never be muddled in the first place. Sweeter Brandy and a shot of 7-UP in place of soda water are there for a reason: to bury that bitterness under enough sugar to make the whole thing work.
Of course, Brandy is not the only Whiskey substitute. I have seen virtually every wood-aged spirit used as the base for the classic drink, from Brandy to Añejo Tequila, Rum, you name it. For my taste, Rum is the most rewarding substitution. A pot-still Rum brings hogo, that funky, fermented depth particular to pot-distilled Rum, and no other spirit duplicates it. Variations have their place, but if I’m ordering, I’ll always take a classic Whiskey Old Fashioned: no fruit, just a fresh orange peel.
Contemporary Takes on the Old Fashioned
Since the 2010s, the Old Fashioned has become a playground for bartenders. Rye remains the classic choice, but Bourbon, Scotch, and Japanese Whisky now show up in the glass just as often. Simple sugar has given way to house-made syrups built from maple, honey, fig, or infused herbs and spices. Angostura still anchors most versions, but orange, black walnut, and even chocolate bitters have found their way in to add another layer. Garnishes have moved well past the orange peel too — charred citrus, a bacon fat drizzle, edible flowers, whatever the bartender wants the glass to say. Of course you know my philosophy, until you have made 1,000 classic Old Fashioneds, I don’t want to see your creative take.
A few variations worth knowing: the Maple Old Fashioned, warm and autumnal with maple syrup standing in for sugar; the Fig Old Fashioned, syrup-sweetened with a quiet, complex fruitiness; the Smoked Old Fashioned, its glass smoked with applewood or pecan chips for aroma as much as flavor; and the Spicy Old Fashioned, built on a cinnamon-, clove-, or star anise-infused syrup for warmth. I’m hoping for the end of smoking glasses, as I have a low threshold for theatrics and I’d rather have the spirit do the talking.
Whatever spirit ends up in the glass, the Old Fashioned asks the same question it always has: spirit first, everything else in service of it. Stir accordingly.
Do you want to better understand cocktails? May we suggest Be A Beverage Expert (BABE), a guide to understanding wine, beer, spirits, and cocktails.